Phish played their first show back at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Denver, CO last night, and taking a page from their previous Night One performances at the venue, the band spelled out “Lushington” as the first set gag before dropping the appropriate “Ha Ha Ha” immediately following. If you missed it, earlier this year Scotty B. and the YEMblog followers got “Lushington” voted as the best Phish song in a Rolling Stone reader poll, so after the letters were spelled out, Trey said to the crowd “You asked, we delivered.” Then added a “simple as that” quip soon after. #WOW.

The set then ended with “Suzy Greenberg” with Natalie Cressman and Jennifer Hartswick on horns, a very welcome treat to finish off the first half of the show.

While we didn’t get “Fluffhead” to start the second set as some had predicted, we were treated to a very interesting set with a monster “Simple” that extended into a nice, funk jam that broke the 20 minute mark. Hands down the highlight of the show for me was that section where “Simple” kept drawing out and finally broke into “Ghost” to keep the set moving along. After that the energy waxed and waned a bit but fell into a very suitably strong end to a “standard” Phish show — “Harry Hood > Wading in the Velvet Sea > Run Like an Antelope” with “Character Zero” as the encore.

Great show all around, with “Simple” being the obvious “must listen” piece of music to dive into this morning. Here’s the setlist via Phish.net:

Phish @ Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO 8.29.14

Set I: Llama, Undermind, Stash, Halfway to the Moon, I Didn’t Know, Nellie Kane, Guyute, The Line, Ocelot > No Quarter, Ha Ha Ha, Suzy Greenberg*Set II: 46 Days > Back on the Train > Simple > Ghost > Backwards Down the Number Line > Harry Hood > Wading in the Velvet Sea > Run Like an AntelopeEncore: Character Zero

* – with Jennifer Hartswick on trumpet and Natalie Cressman on trombone

Our friend Christian Johansen was on hand to shoot the show and brought back this gallery from the first night: